Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Darwin Awards

I tried to stir up a helmet kerfuffle a few posts ago, but to no avail. How do you know your blog is unpopular? When you can't even get a decent pro-/anti-helmet flame war going in your comments. But, undaunted, I will try yet again.

Usually, I take a pretty laid-back, semi-agnostic approach to what one wears upon one's melon while riding. I wear a helmet when I ride, and I ask that anyone on the back of my tandem do the same. Beyond that, what you do on your bike is like what you do in your bedroom: sweaty, marked by a lot of grunting, and none of my dang business.

My agnosticism collapses into pure zealotry on one point, however. If you ride around with your helmet hanging from your handlebars, I will harangue you relentlessly until I am out of earshot (which won't take long, because I'll be trying to ride away from you at my laughable excuse for top speed). Why? Because while I can see some validity to both the pro-helmet-on-head argument and the leave-helmet-at-home argument, there is absolutely NO rational reason for riding with a helmet hanging on your bars. You're still carrying the weight of the thing (albeit not on you), so it's no lighter. And what happens when (not if) the helmet falls off your bars into your front wheel? You're going down, and you're probably taking out several people around you... and the thing that would protect you in a crash is the thing that sent you over the bars in the first place. Irony, thy name is concussion caused by protective headgear.

So, do yourself and everyone riding with you a favor: Either wear the thing or don't. But don't use your bike as a rolling hat rack.

7 comments:

I hate, hate, hate wearing helmets. Ask my kids. They'll tell you that I told them that the stupid under-12 helmet law in PA is stupid and as soon as they're 12 they don't have to wear one any more. However, I'm a member of the Harrisburg Bicycle Club, and they have a stupid, pointless, exclusionary "helmets are mandatory on club rides" policy. So I drape my helmet over my handlebars to get to the ride. I make sure I'm never early so people can see me ride up sans magical foam hat. When the ride is over, I drape the Styrofoam bowl back over the bars to ride home.

Just to make Jason feel more loved, let me see what I can do about the lack of a helmet flame war. :)

Between ice on the road and loose gravel, I've had my helmet skip lightly across the road (with my so-called brain contained within it) more than once. Other than being a bit warm, perhaps, and mussing my so-called hair, I don't see a downside to wearing the helmet.

I can certainly see the point of bike clubs requiring the use of standard safety equipment. They would be getting sued severely if anyone was injured w/o wearing one (and will probably still get sued when the helmet is worn). Insurance companies want to recover the costs of caring for their customers, and will sue anyone nearby that might be involved.

Based on conversations with local cyclists and reading the internets, it seems to me that there's actually a consensus in that most cyclists are against helmet laws and think it should be a matter of personal choice.

This past Saturday I was doing about 40 mph downhill on my road bike. I still can't figure out why, but my front tire blew out. I hit the road on my left side and ended up with two broken ribs and road rash the from my calf to left shoulder. I was wearing a Giro helmet and did hit my head the helmet shattered. It did it's job. I have no head injuries. The road rash will go away and my ribs will heal in 6 to 8 weeks, but if I wasn't wearing a helmet I'd have to guess that I wouldn't be typing this right now.I've always been told that if you don't want to wear a helmet for yourself, you should wear it for the one's you love. My wife has been nursing me through the broken ribs. It's only been four days and I feel like such a burden on her. I ruined our summer riding plans. Without a helmet I probably would have ruined our lifetime plans.

Helmets are hot. Dangerously hot. This is a potentially fatal problem in compulsory helmet land, where I regularly ride a 2-mile long hill and weigh 250lbs. Yes, my BMI is 37 and my resting heart rate is 50. Ride behind me and see the sweat on the ground.

Seriously, heat-related illness kills people, but I don't want it to kill me.